Brussels, 05 July 2011 - The European Commission has today published new statistics showing that EU road fatalities decreased by 11% in 2010. However, country by country statistics (see table below), show that the number of deaths still varies greatly across the EU. Most countries achieved double-digit reductions in the number of road deaths over the past year, the best ones being Luxembourg (33%), Malta (29%) Sweden (26%) and Slovakia (26%). However there is still a lot of work to be done.

European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for Transport, said: "It is very encouraging that nearly all Member States have managed to significantly reduce their number of road deaths, but there is no room for complacency. A hundred people still die on Europe's roads every day. We have made good progress since 2001 and we have succeeded in saving nearly 100,000 lives. But the number of fatalities and injuries on our roads is still unacceptable. We want to cut the number deaths by half by 2020. For this we will be looking at what kind of cars people drive, where they drive and how they drive."

The attached table – "road fatalities per country" – shows progress under the 2001–10 road safety action plan, with EU-wide figures and a breakdown per country. It includes the most recent figures for 2010.

EU road safety action plan

In July 2010 the Commission adopted challenging plans to reduce the number of road deaths on Europe's roads by half in the next 10 years. Initiatives proposed in the "European Road Safety Policy Orientations 2011-2020" range from setting higher standards for vehicle safety, to improving the training of road users, and increasing the enforcement of road rules. The Commission is working closely with Member States to implement this programme.

Road safety action programme 2011–20:

The Road Safety action programme sets out a mix of initiatives focussing on making improvements to vehicles, infrastructure and road users' behaviour.

There are seven strategic objectives:

Improved safety measures for trucks and cars

Building safer roads

Developing intelligent vehicles

Strengthening licensing and training

Better enforcement

Targeting injuries

A new focus on motorcyclists.

Detailed measures for each strategic objective are listed in attached MEMO/10/343.